Thursday, 20 September 2018

"Europe’s
challenges are not intractable. They could be resolved by the EU’s evolution
into a republic, with well-defined borders, an army and a top-down capacity to
balance the economic disparities that have made Germany so skeptical of Greece
and Greece so skeptical of Germany. This republic could inculcate a republican identity
in order to be buoyed by a shared and singular political culture."

Thus Michael Kimmage on the website of The New Republic, in a book review.

It is not very likely that such idea would find many enthusiasts nowadays. Also the political scientist Ulrike Guérot has developed ideas along the line of Kimmage's thoughts, but what I miss in these thought experiments is the role of culture as such - not only political culture, but the artistic heritage of many ages of flowering invention. When Emmanuel Macron received the Charlemagne Prize in May this year, an important part of his impressive speech was dedicated to the role of culture in the project of European integration, because it reflects the continuous spiritual reflection upon the values by which one could and/or should live, and their many changes and developments. He advocated more exchanges of works of art, and the setting-up of a European Cultural Academy, and celebrated the typical European culture of sophisticated debate and exchanges of ideas:

For the arts, the
artistic capital of the accumulated culture of the European past could
again become a source of inspiration, an inexhausible data bank of
possibilities, because basically, the many problems and challenges that
Europe faces today, are not new - they are new in a literal sense, in
their form, but not in the psychological sense of how people deal with
injustice, migration, inequality, clashing interests, prioritizing
values etc. etc. And in the many works of visual art and serious music,
the radiance of beauty and the sublime shines through everywhere, which
is an aspirational force and an invitation to development.

Saturday, 1 September 2018

An interesting article in The Guardian about John Ruskin (19C), which also sheds light upon our own time. Awareness of the fragility of civilization and the natural environment is not new, as is the rampant brutality of so many people who see in the world merely a jungle in which to survive on all costs.

Striking passage:

"A central line of thinking for Ruskin, cutting across his art criticism and political writing, is that a society founded on structures that are embroiled in heartlessness – in brutal treatment of people and the environment around them – is indifferent to beauty. As we see the growth of vast inequalities today, such billionaire tech firms employing precarious workers with diminished rights and pervasive environmental ruin, it is not hard to see parallels in our current moment."

Ruskin had strong opinions about social justice:

“Whereas it has long been known and declared that the poor have no right to the property of the rich, I wish it also to be known and declared that the rich have no right to property of the poor.”

“There is no wealth but life. Life including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration. That country is richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings.”